this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2025
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[–] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 5 points 39 minutes ago

Maybe if they all shoot the fire in the back when it's sleeping?!

[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 2 points 25 minutes ago

Given the history of wildfires in California, someone has anti-survival traits.

[–] eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 10 hours ago

America: Funding cops to shoot black people, defunding actual helpful social needs since 1864.

[–] Crikeste@lemm.ee 1 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

They cut ~2% of the budget. Anyone spewing this funding cut bullshit is a partisan hack.

Quit being reactionary.

[–] xor@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 31 minutes ago* (last edited 26 minutes ago)

that’s not what reactionary means

$17.5 million, or around 2 percent of the previous year’s budget of $837 million. It was the second-largest departmental operating cut to come out of the city’s 2024-25 fiscal year budget, which shaved funding from the majority of city departments — but not the police.

the article does say the percentage… and maybe it’s insane to cut their budget at all, given california’s recent fire problems, and they should’ve increased it by about 100%….
so, given the difference between -2% and +100%, and half the city burning down, it’s a pretty big deal.

[–] GrumpyDuckling@sh.itjust.works 22 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

From my understanding the water towers had completely ran out of water and pumps couldn't keep up. There's was no issue with volume through the existing water system, there's just no way to contain a fire that big. They should be taking preventative measures such as raking the forest.

[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 20 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Can't tell if this is idiocy or peak satire.

Well done.

[–] Thteven@lemmy.world 22 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Oh it's even better than that. They're referencing a direct quote from trump.

https://youtu.be/7CGQv8IDAWw

[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 5 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

I was aware of that, but thank you for providing context!

[–] RedditRefugee69@lemmynsfw.com 5 points 11 hours ago

I was not. Sounded reasonable except the raking part, from someone who knows fuck all about forest fires or building in fire prone areas.

[–] ATDA@lemmy.world 12 points 13 hours ago

I have to do other people's jobs. Slap some tin foil on em and throw them in to help.

[–] atempuser23@lemmy.world 34 points 21 hours ago (3 children)

This is some pure bullshit right here. Never let a tragedy go to waste, gotta get those clicks. No amount of budget would have prepared the city for this. They would have needed literally 10x to contain the fires fast enough.

High winds prevented the use of air based equipment. The same winds drove burning embers for miles into absolutely bone dry foliage.
It's been way to dry here for too long to do any controlled burns, so no way to effectively get rid of the fuel.

The FD could always use more resources, but the extent of this fire has nothing to do with a lack of resources and much more to do with climate change.

[–] badbytes@lemmy.world 9 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

You don't understand wildland fire mitigation very much, do you. Every penny helps you troll. And by the way, I have my red card, and a minor in forest fire management.

[–] atempuser23@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Glad to hear from an expert on the situation , as someone who is in fire management there is a lot you can explain.

There are so much about this . What general resources that would have been needed to prevent the scale of the fires? If properly resourced how would the response have been significantly different? Of course each fire fighter counts, but what would the scale need to have been to change this event? What should people be focusing on when we demand better?

For example I heard the the first hours and days of the fires air assets could not be deployed because of the 60-80 mile hour winds. that was cited as a significant factor in the initial spread. though the source was just on the news so no idea how creditable

Are there types of air craft designed to fight fires in tropical storm like conditions?

Are fire like this seen coming by the city FD?

How are resources allocated when multiple fires rage?

In your opinion what cities are doing a good job with fire/disaster planning? What cities globally face similar challenges as Los Angles? Are there lessons than can be learned from those places?

[–] chuckleslord@lemmy.world 19 points 15 hours ago

I mean, yes, but also fuck the cops and fund the fire department

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 20 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

The main problem is that the houses are made from wood and cardbord, and are placed in and/or surrounded by dry-as-a-fart forests and brushwork. Which is a stupid idea in an area that is known to regularly hve forest and brushwork fires. More now with global warming, which makes the plants even dryer.

[–] atempuser23@lemmy.world 10 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

LA has some some of the most pain in the ass building codes and inspectors. A permit is needed for just about damn everything specifically because of fire risks. Set backs and spacing are strongly enforced as well as the use of fire resistant materials. So even if the house were made of 'cardboard' they are wrapped in concrete siding or stucco.

The winds were 60-80 Miles per hour, blown in from the desert. This is a fire in the center of the city, not some remote urban wild interface.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 2 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Nonetheless, all the houses I have seen burning in the news were surrounded by dry trees and shrubs. And those houses burned as well as any other American cardboard houses. Somehow, I see no difference between them and houses with not as strict building codes. So either they only show homes that have been grandfathered in, or those building codes make no serious difference.

[–] atempuser23@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

This is one of those situations where negatives can't be proved. You are arguing since even code made homes have the possibility of still burning codes don't make a difference. The loss of property has been great, but some of those homes were battered by wind driven ashes for quite a time before igniting. The loss of life while tragic is low given the extent of the fires.

As you noted there are no regulations in LA city proper about landscaping . That is likely to change in the future.

[–] yeather@lemmy.ca 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

My understanding of the situation is the fires are currently burning the historic districts and grandfathered homes. The newer buildings have not been touched yet.

[–] atempuser23@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

That is not true for the Palisades region and Malibu. Most of the homes there would have been newer and they had significant losses.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 16 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

At least a bunch of rich fucks in Malibu and Pacific Palisades are paying the price for it.

Doesn't help the lungs and bronchial passages of people with asthma and other breathing issues though. A lot of people will die who were nowhere near the fires.

[–] atempuser23@lemmy.world 9 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

The rich fucks are insured. The old timers living there before prices blew up will be fucked.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 4 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Apparently not insured enough to not be fretting about it.

[–] Kite@sh.itjust.works 87 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Based on my own experience, this is how most cities handle their PD/FD funding, unfortunately. The fire department is just not important.. until it is.

[–] metaStatic@kbin.earth 39 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Can confirm. source: Am Australian.

[–] Sixtyforce@sh.itjust.works 13 points 21 hours ago

I suspect Scott being a doomsday death cult evangelical made those cuts deliberate instead of just being a standard short sighted git. Especially when he decided to take a vacation during your crises.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 22 points 1 day ago

That's karma. The longer we seek instant gratification, neglecting doing the hard, dirty necessary work that yields no immediate discernable benefits, the more severe the bite is, when it comes back around and bites us in the backside. As a collective, we stay on the wheel of suffering, figure out we need to do something differently, figure out necessary changes, then implement them... Then a few generations, the wealthy overlords convince us we're spending too much on very sensible investments that yield no immediate discernable benefits and we repeat the cycle. It's like Groundhog Day over centuries (which add up to millennia,), rather than days, weeks, years. Because they plan family fortunes for centuries, rather than days, weeks and years, because they can afford private communities, with private police and fire departments, and comprehensive health. The rest of us are means that justify their ends, and the sooner we, as a collective, wake up and smell the roses and love each other enough (which preserves our own arses) to figure out ways to fix this mess, for centuries that turn into millennia, the better off we and the rest of our ecoweb will be. Or not. 🤷‍♀️

[–] skhayfa@lemmy.world 15 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

LAPD cops can shout and order the fires to freeze!

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 10 points 19 hours ago

They could also shoot it if it does not obey!

[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 12 points 21 hours ago
[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 22 points 1 day ago

Meh, same thing with healthcare. Who needs a medical professional to help a person with a mental health crisis when you can have a guy with highschool and six months of "training" put a few bullets in em?